Relentless heat continues to scorch the San Francisco Bay Area; Excessive heat warning extended

Excessive heat in the Bay Area will last longer than initially forecast as dangerously hot weather and fire danger remain throughout the weekend.

Early Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service extended an excessive heat warning for most of the Bay Area and Central Coast, warning of dangerously hot conditions, with temperatures forecast to reach 94 degrees in San Francisco and 113 degrees in higher inland areas .

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The warning is now in effect until 11 p.m. Thursday for the coastal areas and interior valleys of the North Bay, the San Francisco Bay coast, the interior East Bay, Santa Clara County, the Santa Cruz Mountains and interior Monterey County. The warning was originally scheduled to expire on Wednesday evening.

A strong high-pressure system created a heat dome over the region, compressing the typical marine layer and its cooling relief to near sea level, the weather service said. Most inland places, including hills and mountains, are expected to remain warm or very warm overnight on Wednesday evening.

Additionally, the weather service said concerns about increased fire weather will remain through next weekend, prompting a red flag warning for parts of the Central Coast. Dry fuels, hot temperatures and low humidity will combine to produce a mix of near critical to critical fire weather conditions, the weather service said in its daily area forecast discussion.

“The only factor in our favor is the winds. “In general, winds are not excessively strong,” the summary said. “However, there are still periods of offshore flow forecast for the Central Coast through Thursday evening.”

Several heat records were broken or equaled across the Bay Area early Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

In Marin County, San Rafael, temperatures reached 106 degrees, tying a previous record of 106 degrees set in 1980.

According to the weather service, Napa reached 103 degrees, breaking the record of 102 degrees set in 1980.

San Jose reached 106 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 96 degrees set in 1980 and 2012.

The weather service warned that these readings were preliminary and official data was being obtained from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

The continued hot weather and weak winds also prompted the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to issue a fourth consecutive spare-the-air warning because of unhealthy smog levels.

Several The Oct. 1 high temperature records were matched or set across the Bay Area on Tuesday. The record-breaking or near-record hot weather is expected to last through the weekend, the weather service said.